The Beginning and The End

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is the Beginning and the End.  But as well as this, there is a beginning of His work in us and through us, and there is an end to His work in and through us.

In fact, there are many beginnings and there are many ends to our walk with Jesus, but they all start with Him and they all finish with Him.  The first is when we become Christians, the first time we call on His name, the first time we are saved.  But there are other beginnings.  Every time Jesus calls us to “Come up higher” is a new beginning in Him.

Let me share a picture that I had of one such beginning and one such end.

The beginning I’m envisioning is when Jesus calls us to step up higher in faith.  The picture, is the disciples, in a boat (picture that you and I are the disciples).  The waves are getting bigger.  The wind is getting squallier.  There’s an eerie chill in the air, and dark clouds brooding ferociously beyond the hills.  Soon there is a full blown storm.  Two things are immediately apparent.  This storm is a massive one.  In fact this storm is building in such a way that it looks as if it’s going to kill us.  The second thing is: where is Jesus? He’s not in the boat.

Immediately, panic and fear rise up.  “We’re gonna die,” and Jesus has abandoned us.  Great.

Except… what is that up in the distance, on one of the waves.  A branch? A twig? Some debris? Another abandoned ship, capsized, crew already drowned?  A face? No… it’s gone again.

There it is again, only closer.  What the…?  It’s a man? It’s a ghost?

“Take courage, it is I”

There it is. There’s the moment, the chance to come up higher.  The new beginning.  Jesus is with one breath commanding us to take courage, and in the same breath empowering us with courage. It is him!

“If it is you, Lord, then command me to step out onto the waves.”

Then the supernatural strength comes, the empowerment, the grace, and we’re walking on the water with Jesus.

That’s the beginning.  Thats the new level.   That’s when the faith comes.

Jesus is asking us “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth?”.  The answer is definitely “yes”, if we respond to his glorious command and impartation: “Take courage, it is I”

So what of the end? The end is in heaven.  The end is when we get to stand before God, before the angels, and before the saints, and we get to receive the reward of our faith.  I see a row of saints, battle-weary but full of the joy of the Lord, standing before the King, like at a medal ceremony, about to receive the Congressional medal of honor.  Jesus stops at each and every one of us, and at that moment all of heaven stops and savours the moment:  Well done, good and faithful servant.  Jesus looks at each one of us, individually in the eye, and for that moment His joy is complete.  At that moment we understand the infinite, eternal, value of all our trials and the opportunities that Jesus has given us, and we get to complete His joy.

Not just our joy, His joy.

The beginning, and the end.  The beginning is Jesus, the end is Jesus.  Every step of the way, but it requires faith.

But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

And God is pleased with us, as we turn to Him in the midst of the storm, as we call upon the Name of the Lord, and as we are saved.

Strengthen your bedraggled hands and feeble knees…

…and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.

God wants to strengthen us, lift us up so that we can shine in these days in which we live.

From the strengthening flows healing, from the healing salvation, from the salvation praise.

God himself will do the strengthening, God himself will do the healing.  We simply need to call upon his name.

Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

Isaiah 40:

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
“ Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended…

“ Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;

Psalm 28:

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him.

The LORD is their strength,
And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.

Save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance;
Shepherd them also,
And bear them up forever.

For You will light my lamp;
The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalm 18:

For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.

As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

For who is God, except the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?

It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
And sets me on my high places.
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

God’s still got a plan…

Whew… what happened?  Before you know it, three weeks has gone past, and you’re asking yourself … “How?”

Well I’m asking myself “How?”

I’ve realized just how easy it is to slip into the old “striving” ways, and how hard it is to learn to abide in God’s rest, and yet how easy it is when we do abide in God’s rest.

Today I was reminded of that verse: God’s still got a plan.  So we momentarily forgot about God and His plan after somehow exhausting ourselves again with sleepless nights and unnecessary anguish… guess what … God didn’t forget.

There it is again, like the Hollywood sign, emblazoned in heavenly neon, across Mt Zion in our mind’s eye:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The breath of heaven arouses us, like Holy smelling salts, and we’re like…. whoa, where am I?

God’s still got a plan.  More than this, God’s still got a plan for our lives.

Thankyou Jesus, Thankyou Jesus, Thankyou Jesus…

Hold Fast to That Which is True Part II

The Bible teaches us again and again to hold fast; we are to speak the truth, we are not to be vague.  We are to let our yes be “yes”, and our no “no“, we are not to be double minded.   We are not to despise prophecies.  We are to test everything.

The disturbing fact is, when God speaks something over us, or through us, or to us, it’s all to easy to lose the moment in the glory.  How could this be?  When experiencing the glory of God, its all too easy to feel invincible, that the clarity of the moment will remain when the glory lifts (not departs, just lifts, as in is no longer tangible).

Then as we return to the tyranny of the familiar, the word becomes all too distant and vague and unbelievable, and before long we forget it.   God instructs us to write his word on our doorposts, to strap it to our foreheads.  That is true of the written word, the Bible, and it ought to be true of the things that God shows us, that we know that He’s shown us, that He’s confirmed to us.

Maybe now would be a good time to dust off the word that God’s spoken to you, the vision God’s given you, the dreams Gods given you, and take a good look at them for what they are.  Don’t let the distorted goggles of disappointment and the choking black smoke from the fires of your current circumstances cloud your judgement and cause you to forget what God has promised.  God will do whatever it is He said He would do.  God is still true to His word.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and don’t you forget it!

And those circumstances—just what are they?  Just as Jesus said to Peter “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed that your faith should not fail” Satan and his diabolical henchmen also ask to sift us, and will send anything in their power to discourage us from what God has clearly spoken.

Fortunately, Jesus has prayed for us too, and our brothers and sisters in Christ are going through those same struggles.   If you faint in the time of adversity, how small is your strength? Similarly, while Jesus is sleeping and the storms of life knock the boat, remember Jesus’ words, as He rebukes the wind and the waves and calm prevails: “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”.

You of little faith, why are you so afraid?   God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

You who are disappointed, remember Jesus’ words “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” So the other ten doorways were dead ends?   So what?   Jesus has asked the Father, on your behalf, and He has provided many rooms for you.  No matter what life may have thrown your way, He who promised is faithful.  Don’t you dare let life steal from you the joy of the great cloud of witnesses, cheering you on in heaven.  And don’t you dare think you have it harder than they did.  Press on! Remember the promises of Hebrews Chapter 11, and fight the good fight of faith!

The Flame…

I didn’t post yesterday, had a crap day… which served to remind me how easy it is to lose track of God and His plan.

The psalmist says: “Why, God why?”, “How long, O Lord, how long, how long?” which reminds us we’re not alone, in this journey of faith, in losing site of the goal.

Especially when God either directly or indirectly derails our plans. His plans are not contigent upon our plans.   And its not just the reverse thats true.   More than that, our (new) plans, in Christ, are contigent upon Him.  “I will be your portion”, He says.  So we seek, and wait, and seek and wait…

When the journey requires of us brokenness, or we bring upon ourselves brokenness through not allowing God in— the pain can be overwhelming.

Especially when we’re reminded by our lack of progress.   Our former compatriates, or those who we think ought to be our peers by now (and perhaps they should), pass us by, the specter of  failure comes crashing around us.   “Why, God, Why?  When, God, When?” we cry…  While the world says we’re mad (and perhaps we are)

We are reminded of David and of Job:

“He has alienated my brothers from me;
       my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

Then in the midst of that darkness, lest we stumble headlong into the pit that is self-pity, God reminds us of who we are and who He is and who He has called us to be…

Today God did it in the strangest way… I was sitting in my office, moping and moaning, when a song started in my head…

“Wherever you go, I’ll be with you…
“Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you…
“Whenever you need someone, to lay your heart and head upon
“Remember, after the fire—after all the rain—I will be The Flame”

And God does promise to lead us on into eternity, with the Flame of His presence, to have us burning and not consumed… with His eternal passion for the broken world we live in.  God is faithful, He is good and He is true.

Don’t forget today is September 11, Don’t forget the tragedy and pray for Gods hand upon the United States in the coming elections (and for my own country of New Zealand too!)